Closing out 2020 & the Future of Sales

Like every person on the planet, I am thankful that all those I know and care about got through 2020 in one piece.

12 months ago today, I was sitting in the sand on Waikiki Beach and had just read that China was in the process of shutting down a major city of 10 million people in order to control a deadly virus outbreak. As it seemed to be a localized event, I did not give it much thought as I put the phone down and went out for a swim.

When I got back home a few days later I don't recall paying too much attention to what was happening Wuhan. Instead, I was focused on understanding my new sales territory and was busy booking meetings with clients and prospects to learn about their business priorities for the new year. In late February, scientists and public health officials were raising alarm signals that COVID-19 was continuing to spread across the globe and would likely impact us in North America as well. It was like a watching a car accident happen in slow motion.

But most of us carried on with business trips and client meetings right up until the week the lockdown started here in Canada. Looking back now, I cannot believe that I had actually hosted a large client event at a hockey game in Vancouver on March 10th. When the game was over I remember thinking this might be the last time we all gather together, and remember walking out of the arena with thousands of people, thinking "how f**king stupid it was to be here with all these people" on the eve of a global pandemic.

The Lock Down

A few days later, the Canadian and Provincial Governments had (correctly) decided to move the nation into a country wide lock down on March 17th.

And for me personally, this just so happened to be the same date in which I accepted an offer of employment to join Workday, starting the first week of April. Was I crazy to make a move at the beginning of a pandemic?

New Role at Workday

Joining Workday was an incredible move for me personally and professionally.

Having an opportunity to focus on existing customers in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba gave me a chance to work with some of the largest and most well known Canadian companies, across a wide range of industries.

I was a bit worried about how I was going to be onboarded, in the midst of a global pandemic, but Workday made it easy. Our Sales Academy was led by one of the best in the business and I joined a global cohort of Workmates from Asia Pacific, North America some amazing Europeans. It was fun and intense as we worked through our course material, with daily stand-and-deliver sessions, culminating 5-weeks later during an intense 60 min Executive Overview and Solution Demo presentation in front of my instructor, manager and many peers. At Workday, Sales Academy definitely raises the bar on the traditional software company boot-camp.

I was the ready to get out there and start talking to customers. But we had to hold back and show restraint and allow our customers and their families to figure out just how bad the lockdown was going to be for us all.

Society Turned Upside Down

As we headed into the end of March, the world seemed to be turning upside down. People were stranded in foreign destinations, unable to return home as most airlines had to cancels all flights. Retailers, restaurants, grocery chains and an undercurrent of worry seemed to creep into all conversations. People were being laid off, and the economy was shutting down, and no one knew how long it was going to last.

But there was a silver light during these dark and uncertain times. It was evident that we were all in the same boat and we were constantly practicing being "Safe, Calm and Kind" thanks to the thoughtful words from our local Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry.

I loved the the new tradition, whereby at 7pm where we all would be on our balconies, or end of driveways banging pots to acknowledge all of our brave essential workers as they changed shifts each day. This became a welcome and comforting sound and I am told it could be heard across the country each and every night in April, May and June.

As we all held our breath and moved into the warm summer months, a strange new era at work had definitely taken hold. We talked about this "new normal" of working from home, communicating with peers, partners and our customers.

Platforms like Zoom and Slack seemed to help break down the barriers.

Thankfully, we all found that technology could help us all stay connected, even when we were forced to stay apart....and somehow we made it through 2020.

However, I have been thinking about what impact there will be to those of us in sales roles moving into 2021. New terms such as"Zoom Fatigue", finding balance in a WFH environment and a new awareness of our own mental health seemed to communicated internally and externally.

2021 & the Future of Sales?

What will be the impact to our roles in sales when we come out of the Covid era, all vaccinated and ready to resume our sales activities in the field?

As a salesperson, I feel that it's going to take some time to assess the real impact this year will have on our roles moving forward, and how our clients, managers and employers view how we perform our sales duties.

• Will companies want to send sales reps out into the field to meet customers?
• Will customers want to meet with us?
• Will we fully return to the office?
• Will our employers resume Sales Kick Off in Vegas?
• Do we really need to host our customers and prospects at lavish annual customer conferences?

This year it was proven that sales professionals can conduct our regular business via Zoom. We proved that we can develop and build new relationships with prospects and clients, without ever meeting in person.

We also know that Discovery and Demo Sessions can easily be completed remotely. We learned that we can help our clients complete full evaluations of our enterprise software solutions and create supporting business cases. Business decisions can be made, vendors selected, contracts negotiated and projects delivered - all remotely!

Time will tell how this all shakes out...

But as we close out 2020 today, be sure to show kindness, be calm and be safe out there....

About the Author

Dean lives in Vancouver and works for one of the best software companies in the world, Workday.

When not working at home, he is dreaming of riding his Italian Social Distance Machine on the Sea-to-Sky Highway, up to Whistler

PS for all my fellow bikers out there, only 60 days until Spring riding season kicks off again!